Apple tightens iPhone repair policy to prevent fraud
Apple has strengthened its “parts pairing” technology to deter iPhone repair scams. Apple’s “parts pairing” system now ensures only Apple-approved parts are used in iPhone repairs.
Austin Carr for Bloomberg News:
Last week, a US district court judge sentenced Haotian Sun and Pengfei Xue, two Chinese nationals in their mid-30s, to more than four years of prison each for participating in a complicated scheme to defraud Apple Inc. According to prosecutors, Sun, Xue and other conspirators attempted to submit some 6,000 counterfeit iPhones to Apple for repair in hopes they’d get replaced with genuine versions under its warranty coverage.
To game the system, Sun and Xue went about substituting wrecked bits with third-party generics. For example, they’d replace a smashed screen with a fresh knockoff display, and take the faulty iPhone to an Apple store or an authorized service provider. There, an employee would look over the dead iPhone and, not realizing non-genuine components had been swapped, would replace it with a brand-new iPhone under warranty, at times on the spot. Court records show that in January 2018 alone, Sun submitted 719 iPhones for repair; 646 of them were replaced, worth $387,600.
Since then, Apple has more closely scrutinized warranty returns and has been forced to change its recycling and repair approaches… Apple has greatly expanded the use of a controversial practice called “parts pairing,” which essentially uses software to link specific components inside the iPhone itself, be they batteries or displays or camera modules, to make sure the device is only embedded with Apple-approved parts.
MacDailyNews Take: There are many reasons for parts pairing: fraud, quality, performance, safety, reputation of second hand products, etc.
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